IPv6 cookbook - was RA vs. DHCPv6 discussion

[michael.dillon at bt.com]

>  	I would prefer that every who has IPv6 operational
> experiences share them one way or another. 

When there are too many places to share experiences, many people don't
share at all, or only share on a one-to-one basis. 

> I don't care which
> portal or at which  organisation. Internet is a free medium to publish
> documents.

Then you should support having fewer places which attempt to be portals
and more groups banding together to support those places.

This is not about freedom to publish, because as you pointed out,
everyone already is free to publish as they wish on the Internet. This 
is about making information easier to find, and most importantly, 
making the quality of information better.

If everyone just publishes their experiences on their blogs, then
a newcomer who tries to make use of that information on a slightly
different network will run into problems. Or you will find one blog
saying RA is all you need, and another telling you that you must
set up DHCPv6 and patch it in a certain way.

But when you get many people working together on a wiki, you get some
synergy so that the page recommending RA explains when it is appropriate
and when it might not be. Then the page recommending DHCPv6 will say
that smaller networks need not bother with the complexity, and there 
will also be a page explaining how to configure RA and DHCPv6 to work
together. Similarly the issue of OSPFv3 and router IDs would get
explained
so that people don't have surprises when they shift from dual-stack
to pure Ipv6.

All of this is also discussed in mailing lists, but you have to wade
through
the whole thread to figure out what the end result was. A good wiki
will publish a summing up with the CONCLUSIONS of a discussion, so that
it is easier for a learner to understand.

Both mailing lists and wikis require a critical mass of people in order
to be successful.

My suggestions to RIPE and ARIN are about achieving that kind of
critical
mass.

--Michael Dillon